Lower shoulder for a pressurized suit

ABSTRACT

PLUG LOAD RESTRAINTS WITH A MEDIAL TURNAROUND ARE LOCATED IN THE SAGITTAL PLANE BETWEEN A MAIN SHOULDER TURN-AROUND GUIDE AND AN ARM BEARING IN THE LOWER SHOULDER OF A PRESSURIZED SUIT, THEREBY TO INCREASE MOBILITY OF THE ARM AND THE SHOULDER. THE LOWER SHOULDER RESTRAINT SYSTEM INCLUDES PRE-SHAPED CONVOLUTES FABRICATED OF RESTRAINT CLOTH.

Feb. 23, 1971 J, HARDY ETAL LOWER SHOULDER FOR A PREssuRIzEO sum v l vFiled Dec.4 20, 1968 United States Patent O LOWER SHOULDER FOR APRESSURIZED SUIT John C. Hardy, Weatogue, and James F. Wilber III,

Hazardville, Conn., assignors to United Aircraft Corporation, EastHartford, Conn., a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 20, 1968, Ser. No.785,606 Int. Cl. A62b 17/00 U.S. Cl. 2-2.1 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE Plug load restraints with a medial turnaround are located inthe sagittal plane between a main shoulder turn-around guide and an armbearing in the lower shoulder of a pressurized suit, thereby to increasemobility of the arm and the shoulder. The lower shoulder restraintsystem includes pre-shaped convolutes fabricated of restraint cloth.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of invention This invention relates topressurized suits of the type utilized in high altitude aviation andspace exploration, and more particularly to an improved lower shoulderrestraint system therefor.

Description of the prior art In the ield of pressurized suits, it haslong been known that suits become extremely stiff when under pressure.Additionally, the tendency toward growth must be restrained in order toprevent the entire suit from blowing outwardly and stretching, just asdoes a toy balloon. The restraints also tend to reduce mobility of thesuit. Thus, between the restraints and the natural stiffness of the suitas a result of internal' pressure, it is difficult to provide jointswhich allow a suitable degree of freedom of mobility of the wearer, andwhich do not require'an excessive amount of exertion on the part of thewearer in order to flex, extend, stretch or rotate various parts of thebody.

In order to overcome this, 'Various innovations in joints and interfacesbetween the various parts of the suit have been developed. Oneinnovation is the utilization of turnaround cable restraints at theupper shoulder. Such a restraint begins at a point of termination in theupper chest in the front, travels around the shoulder (high up on thebicep) to a point located near the center of the back. The cable passesthrough a turnaround located on the shoulder, so that as the shoulder ismoved forwardly and backwardly the turnaround will slip along therestraint cable and allow the suit shoulder to follow the shoulder ofthe wearer. Similarly, up and down motion of the shoulder is relativelysimple because the cable pivots at its termination points quite readily.Such a shoulder restraint section serves the basic need of shouldermotion, but does not allow a full degree of arm freedom in permitting acompletely neutral or arms down position while at rest, or in fulladduction of the arm (which occurs when the arm is stretched across thefront of the chest).

SUMMARY OF INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provideincreased mobility for the arms and shoulders in a pressurized suit.

According to the present invention, a restraint system includes plugload restraints located in the sagittal plane of the upper arm or lowershoulder, with a medial turnaround joining the front and rear sectionsof the restraint. According still further with the present invention, a

lower shoulder restraint system comprises pre-shaped convolutesfabricated of restraint cloth.

A lower shoulder in accordance with the present invention operates inconjunction with an upper shoulder, an arm bearing, and other parts of apressurized suit so as to permit a completely neutral or arms downposition of the arm, and to allow almost complete degree of freedom inrotation, flexion and extension. The invention is far less bulky thanlower shoulders known to the prior art, and is readily manufactured andreliable.

The foregoing and other objects, features and ad vantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent in the light of the followingdetailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, as illustratedin the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a front elevation of arm andshoulder sections incorporating the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial back elevation of an actual pressurized suitillustrating the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective illustration of extreme adductive flexionaccording to the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a side elevation illustrating the rear of the lower shoulderwhen in extreme adductive flexion.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. l, anupper shoulder assembly comprises a number of convolutes 10-12 connectedbetween the scye 14 and a substantially rigid member or ring 16, Theupper shoulder is stabilized with respect to the remainder of the suitdue to its attachment to a torso portion 18 at the scye 14, and due torestraint provided by a shoulder restraint cable 20 which passes througha turnaround guide 22 located on the rigid ring 16. The shoulderrestraint cable 20 is disposed to the torso 18 at a pivot point 24 whichmay be conveniently attached to a plate or other terminous 26 located onthe torso 18. The terminus or plate 26 may conveniently be sewn into thefabric of the restraint torso 18. As is illustrated in FIG. 2, the uppershoulder restraint cable 20 may, if desired, extend from the pivot 24around one arm, across the back, and around the other arm to a similarpivot on the opposite side of the chest. Alternatively, the cable 24 mayterminate on each side of the upper back at respective plates 28, 30`thus isolating each shoulder from the other. However, in the embodimentshown herein, the cable 20* passes through guides 32, 34 located on theplates 28, 30 and each shoulder is therefore stabilized in conjunctionwith the opposite shoulder. The upper shoulder restraint cable andturnaround assembly as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and described thusfar are known to the art and do not form a part of the invention herein,except as part of a suitable environment for utilization of the presentinvention.

The arm of the space suit comprises an arm bearing 436 which is a ballbearing capable of allowing complete rotation of the lower arm about itsaxis relative to the upper arm, and vice versa. The lower arm includes aconvolute section employing a number of convolutes 38-40 and may beprovided with lateral plug load restraint cables 42 (FIG. ll) and 42a(FIG. 3). As shown in phantom, suitable transition means 46 may beprovided in order to permit joinder of the arm with a glove assembly. Itshould be borne in mind that FIGS. l and 4 illustrate the left arm, andFIG. 3 illustrates the right arm. However, the right arm is entirelysimilar to the left arm, including an arm bearing 36a, and an upperrestraint turn-around guide 22a. 'I'.he ring 16 and bearing 36 may bejoined by convolute sections, such as convolutes 50, 52.

An arm assembly as described thus far provides a fair amount of shouldermobility, but does not permit a completely neutral, or arms downposition, and is limited in the adduction of the arm. In providingshoulder motion, the turnaround guide 22 slides along the upper shoulderrestraint cable if the shoulder is exed forwardly or backwardly, and thecable 210 pivots about the point 24 whenever the arm is raised andlowered.

To permit a completely neutral or arms down position, and to increasemaximum angles of arm ilexion, the present invention provides a sagittalrestraint 54, 54a for each arm, each of which passes through arespective lower shoulder turnaround 56, 56a thus providing plug loadrestraint between the ring 16, 16a and the arm bearing 36, 36a, withoutlimiting the degree of freedom of motion. It is to be noted that anyrestraint cable functioning in the lower shoulder (or upper arm area) ofpressurized suits known to the art has been a lateral restraint(somewhat similar to restraint cables 42 and 42a herein). One aspect ofthe present invention is providing the plug load restraint for the lowershoulder in the sagittal plane (the plane running from front to back)rather than in the frontal plane (a plane running from side to side, asare the lateral restraints 42, 42a). With lower shoulder plug loadrestraints located in the frontal plane, it is impossible to achieve afully neutral, armsdown position. Referring to FIG. 2, it can be seenthat each of the arm bearings 36, 36a is substantially perfectlyhorizontal and therefore a completely neutral or arms down position ispossible in accordance with the present invention. Note that FIG. 1 issemi-schematic in nature, and so the non-horizontal arm bearings 36, 36aare not indicative of the true capability of the invention. Thus thelower shoulder sagittal restraint cables 54, 54a are neutrally locatedwithin their respective turnaround guides 56, 56a. On the other hand,the present invention permits complete adduction of the arm, as isillustrated with respect to the right arm in FIG. 3 and with respect tothe left arm in FIG. 4. It can be noticed that the lower shouldersagittal restraint cable 54a is barely visible in FIG. 3 as a result ofthe cable restraint guide 56a having slid along it substantially to theterminal point of the cable 54a at the arm bearing 36a. Similarly, FIG.4 illustrates that the cable 54 at the back of the left arm has becomeelongated (bearing in mind that FIG. 4 is partially perspective in thearea of the lower shoulder as seen therein), the arm bearing 36 havingbeen drawn a good distance away from the ring 16a to which the lowershoulder turnaround guide is disposed.

Although it appears unlikely that sagittal restraint cables will providethe motion required, it has been found that, as illustrated in FIGS. 2,3 and 4 herein, provision of the plug load restraint in the sagittalplane, in accordance with the present invention, does indeed supplementthe upper shoulder assembly and permits a complete degree of freedom -ofmotion from full adduction of the arm to a completely neutral arms downposition. Obviously, the sagittal restraint also aids in backwardflexion and forward llexion of the arm.

A second aspect of the present invention is that the turnaround guides56, 56a are located on the inside of the arm, and therefore arepositionally complementary 4 to the turnaround guides 22, 22a. Thisreduces the bulk at the outside of the shoulder and tends to equalizethe stress on the ring 16, 16a whereby its strength may be less than itwould have to be if both sets of turnaround guides were located on theoutside perimeter of the shoulder.

An additional feature of the present invention is the combination of thepre-shaped convolutes 50, 52 with the lower shoulder restraint, such asrestraint 54 herein.

It should be noted that the turnaround restraint function can beachieved by providing termination of the restraint 54 on the proximalrigid member, such as the ring |16, both in the front and the back, andproviding a turnaround guide on the distal rigid member, such as thebearing 36. This is possible because the function of the presentinvention is to limit the combined distance in the front and in the backof the ring 16 from the bearing 36.

As illustrated in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the turnaround guides 22, 22a, 56,56a are shown with covers 60 thereon.

Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to apreferred embodiment thereof, it should be understood by those skilledin the art that the foregoing and various other changes and omissions inthe form and detail thereof may be made therein without departing fromthe spirit and the scope of the invention.

Having thus described a typical embodiment of our invention that whichwe claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. In a pressurized suit, a lower shoulder and upper arm assemblycomprising:

a convoluted fabric upper arm section;

a pair of annular, substantially rigid members secured to said upper armsection, each member circumscribing said upper arm section, said membersbeing axially displaced along said upper arm section in relativelydistal and proximal positions, respectively;

a turnaround guide means secured to a first one of said members andextending around substantially half the periphery thereof; and plug loadrestraint cable affixed at front and rear points, substantially within aplane extending from front to back and parallel with the longitudinalaxis of said upper arm section, on a second one of said members andpassing through said guide means, said guide means adapted to permitsaid restraint cable to slide therewithin.

2. The lower shoulder assembly according to claim 1 wherein one of saidmembers comprises a stabilizing support ring adapted to receive an uppershoulder turnaround assembly and the other of said members comprises anarm bearing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,335,475 11/1943 Beall 12S-142.52,894,535 7/1959 Hansen 138-49 2,939,148 6/1960 Hart et al. 24-212,954,562 1960 Krupp 2-2.1 3,428,961 2/1969 Schneller 2-2.1

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner G. H. K RIZMANICH, Assistant Examiner

